Chennai: A man from Chennai is doing wonders by making sustainable wooden planks from agricultural waste in a natural way. Nearly 15 billion trees are being destroyed each year for human and commercial purposes. Many people, who love nature are taking measures to protect trees from being destroyed. Similarly, Bengani, a resident of Chennai, loves nature and uses only agricultural waste to produce wooden boards. Presently, he runs a company called Indowud.
Bengani had worked in the wood business since his childhood and later, he started his own wood manufacturing company. At that time, he assumed why we should destroy nature, destroy the green forests to manufacture wooden products. As a result to do something from his side to avoid environmental damage, in 2019 he started Indowud. In this company they get paddy husk from farmers and grind it as a fine paste, then they add some minerals to it to make plank and wood products.
Speaking to ETV Bharat, Bengani said, "In north India, I have seen farmers burning agricultural waste, including paddy husk and wheat husk. This causes air pollution and it also affects humans. So, I thought I could do something with this. Then I decided to use these husks to make artificial wooden planks without wood. I spent almost two years doing research, consulting experts and planning how to make planks sans wood. Then, we got paddy husks from the fields. Bengani said, "People spend lakhs of rupees to buy wooden furniture. But, their life span is shorter if the furniture, doors and windows become wet. So, we considered this and made our products, which have more life span than wood and we are not compromising on quality."
Apart from Tamil Nadu, permission was granted from the Andhra Pradesh, Telangana governments and some other states to sell their products. Their product does not contain any chemical substances. Nearly 15 tonnes of paddy husk are required to produce 25 tonnes of wood planks per day. They have expanded Indowud in 22 cities in the country and they are planning to expand in other countries, including Australia, Oman and America," said Bengani.
